Only Words Bleed

I'm A Loaded Gun

A/N: Hey, yall.

I know it's been a while; been dealing with some personal issues making it difficult to write lately. But I'm glad I was able to get this chapter in. :)

Violet's Pov:

I stayed in the hospital for three more days, each one as agonizing as the last. I wanted out of there as soon as possible, but the doctors were hesitant to let me go. Always saying something along the lines of letting my ribs have time to heal a bit more before I returned to the activities of my regular life. I understood that I had been injured, but I didn't really care. I'd gone through this before without medical assistance so it didn't seem like that big of a deal to me, but I guess it is.

Sure it was nice to get a dose of pain medication every so often to ease the fire in my side, but I still wanted out of there. Though I have to admit, I wasn't really looking forward to what came after my hospital visit either. I had trouble sleeping at night with my fear of being left alone in a place like this and thinking about what was to come next. It didn't help that I couldn't write for quite a while.

The only thing that made it worth it was that every day Clem came to visit me after school. Lee even stopped in to say hi a couple of times and of course, he always brought AJ who was always ecstatic to see me. Once Clem brought the whole gang to see me and Brody almost had an emotional meltdown worrying about me after we finally explained everything that had happened, everyone finally learning the whole story.

I was worried about how they'd react with all the secrets I've kept hidden, but no one ever reacted with any kind of malice towards me. In all honesty, I kind of feel like everyone feels bad that they didn't do more to prevent what happened, but how could they? No one knew, and I sure wouldn't have told them. But the cat was out of the bag now, and all anyone could do was keep moving forward.

I guess that's what we were doing now as we drove down the suburban streets and I watched the houses roll by from the other side of the car's glass window. My hand reached up and I found myself subconsciously fingering the golden locket that hung around my neck. I had quickly learned that I would always mess with the pendant whenever I was feeling nervous or scared. But it made me feel better knowing that it was there.

I haven't had it for very long but from the day Clem gave it to me in the hospital, it became one of my most treasured items. It means the world that Clem gave this to me and even more so with what she did with it. I don't know how she was able to steal my picture without me noticing, but she made a copy of my picture of Jackson and had it modified so it could fit inside my locket. And it makes my heart melt every time I think about it and I refuse to part with it. Nothing could ever compare to something as special as this given to me by the most important person in my life.

I had been released from the hospital earlier that day with strict instructions to take it easy until my injuries had fully healed and I was given some pain medication to take every day to help with any discomfort. I was glad to be out of that imprisonment, but it only felt like I was being moved to another prison as we reached the end of the street.

My mom had come to pick me up from the hospital, but the news she brought didn't have me feeling very excited. She had gotten clearance for us to move into Grandma and Grandpa's old house, but I was worried about facing yet another horror from my past. It was like the hit's just kept on coming, in a quite literal sense when you think about it.

Out of all the good memories I had here there was one that overpowered all the others and it wasn't a good feeling. It's an image that never left me and never will leave me, no matter how hard I try to bury it in the depths of my mind. I wish I could lock it away and bury the key and never have to think about it again, but when everything that has happened to me is revolved around that moment it's kind of hard to forget when you're always reminded that it was your fault. Because that's what it was, my fault. It was always my fault.